Speakers

Andrew Gordon

Andrew Gordon, directing animator at Pixar Animation Studios, will deliver a talk about creativity and storytelling that will inspire the Contract Design Forum audience. In his 20 years at Pixar, Gordon was an animator for films including A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Monsters University, and WALL-E, among many others. Stories are not just for the movies. Our brains are wired for stories in business, as well, to help make sense of change, align with vision and demonstrate values. Storytelling is increasingly a vital tool in leadership and innovation, and Andrew Gordon is helping leaders bring them to life in every industry. An expert with character and story, Gordon will reveal the techniques for shaping a culture of creativity. In addition to his animation work, Gordon has been teaching animation/storytelling classes since 2000. He is also a co-founder of The Animation Collaborative and the animation programs at both California College of the Arts and One Academy. Gordon has worked with companies around the world, bringing creativity to clients including Salesforce, Pinterest, Deloitte, and IDEO, among others.

Ellen Dunham-Jones

A leading authority on retrofitting suburbia, Dunham-Jones and co-author June Williamson wrote the authoritative book on the subject “Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs” (Wiley, 2009, update in 2011). The book documents successful retrofits of vacant big box stores, dead malls, and aging office parks into more sustainable places. She is a professor of architecture at Georgia Tech, where she served as the director of the architecture program from 2001 to 2009. Ellen has published more than 60 additional papers linking contemporary architectural theory and practice. She has served in several national leadership roles including board chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism, AIA Design and Health Leadership Group, the Hanley Wood Sustainability Council, and the advisory boards of the Journal of Urbanism, Places, (in)Forma, the Livability Index. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Princeton University and taught at the University of Virginia and MIT before joining Georgia Tech’s faculty.

Jason Schupbach

Jason Schupbach is the Director of The Design School at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. He began in that role in summer 2017 after seven years as the Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), where he oversaw all design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA’s Federal agency collaborations. From 2008 to 2010, Schupbach served Governor Patrick of Massachusetts as the Creative Economy Director, tasked with growing creative and tech businesses in the state. He formerly was the Director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation funded initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creatives. He holds a Master in City Planning from MIT, and has written extensively on the role of arts and design in making better communities.